The Other Uchiha
by UrbanChameleon
Summary: It seemed Itachi had not only left behind an ideal for Sasuke to follow, but also a son. Final sequel to "Hero" and "Until the End".
Sasuke walked through the gates at sunset. He had decided to add sand to the list of things he hated with a passion. Despite that, his mission in Sunagakure had gone well. He had met with Gaara on behalf of Naruto in order to discuss the plans for this year's Chuunin Exams. Since last year's exams had ended so disastrously, no _genin_ had been promoted to _chuunin_. This year's event would be on a larger scale, as the number of _genin_ expected to participate was double. Sarada's team would no doubt be entering again.

He walked along the street towards the Hokage Headquarters, but he was in no hurry to report back to Naruto. After running to and back from the Land of Wind in the record time of three days, he did not much feel like going any faster. The cool air of dusk was a relief after the blistering heat of the desert.

Sasuke was passing by the training grounds when a sudden movement caught his eye. He turned his head and stopped dead in his tracks. The figure jumped high in the air, turned and threw six kunai at various targets scattered among the tree trunks. A quick turn and he threw two more kunai, deflecting some to reach hidden targets. Sasuke stared in disbelief as the figure landed on one knee. _Itachi's shurikenjutsu,_ his mind uttered. _But how?_

The boy looked over his shoulder. Sasuke thought he saw the red of the sharingan, but it faded in a heartbeat. _A trick of the eye,_ he thought. The boy stood up and walked away, vanishing among the trees before Sasuke had a chance to call out after him. He was left standing in the middle of the street, uncertain whether what he had just seen had been real.

He had not thought about Itachi in a while, Sasuke mused as he started walking again. His mind was starting to play tricks on him. Heat stroke, maybe, though he was not feeling sick in any way. However… _I may have imagined the sharingan, but that was still Itachi's shurikenjutsu._

"Ah, Sasuke," Naruto said as he walked into his office. "You're back."

The Hokage's office was the usual mess: piles of paperwork awaiting Naruto's attention, empty ramen cups and forgotten stacks of folders. Naruto was typing away at his computer. As he waited for him to finish, Sasuke's thoughts went back to the figure on the training grounds. Itachi had been dead for almost seventeen years. The boy was definitely younger than that, that much he was certain of.

" _Oi,_ Sasuke."

Sasuke looked up and saw Naruto staring at him. "What?"

"I said, how did it go in Sunagakure?"

Sasuke retrieved a scroll from the folds of his cloak and threw it to Naruto. The Hokage opened it. His head kept bobbing in agreement as he read it. There was a knock at the door and Shikamaru entered when prompted, bearing an armful of folders. Since there was no room on Naruto's desk, he dropped them on a chair by the wall and crossed his arms.

"Really, Naruto, you should hire someone to clean up this mess for you. I'm not a maid, you know. Hey, Sasuke."

"Shikamaru."

"What's up with you?" Naruto asked Sasuke, rolling up the scroll. "You seem out of sorts."

Sasuke hesitated. Old habits die hard. He had never been used to sharing his thoughts and feelings with others, much less ask for anything. This time, however, curiosity did him in and he took a leap of faith.

"I saw something on my way here," he said. "Someone who was using Itachi's _shurikenjutsu_."

He had barely finished his sentence when Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged a strange look. It lasted only for a moment, but he had not missed it. Naruto leaned back in his chair and Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets, both of them looking like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"You know something about it," Sasuke said. "What is it?"

Naruto sighed and looked at him. "I'm not the one you should be talking to about this, Sasuke," he said, taking a pen and a piece of paper and jotting something down. He then held it out for Sasuke. It was an address. "The woman who lives at this address can give you the answers you're looking for. Her name is Akane Nara."

"Nara?" Sasuke asked, looking at Shikamaru.

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "My cousin."

"What does she have to do with this?"

"Just do as I said, _dobe,_ " Naruto snapped. "I'm not telling you anything. It's not my story to tell."

Sasuke felt a pang of irritation, but he refrained himself. He would get to the bottom of this either way. He shoved the address in his pocket and left, but instead of exiting the building to go home, Sasuke walked down the stairs into the basement.

The girl in the Archives seemed surprised to see him. Her face turned crimson as she stood up to greet him, barely stammering out: "Sasuke-sama! G-good evening! What can I do for you?"

"I need to have a look at someone's file," he said, looking at her name tag, "Junko-san."

The girl sat at her desk and opened a window on her computer screen. Oh, the perks of being the number two shinobi in Konoha. He had access to anything, no questions asked.

"What is the name of the person you're looking for?"

"Nara, Akane. I want everything you have on her."

The girl pushed her glasses up her nose and quickly typed up the name. A few clicks later, she rushed to get the file for him. It only took a couple of minutes for her to return, clutching two yellowing paper folders to her chest.

"Here it is."

Sasuke took them from her and walked to one of the tables nearby to study them. They were thicker than he had expected. It seemed it may be a while before he got home. He would miss dinner for certain, but perhaps Sakura and Sarada would still be awake when he returned. He dismissed that thought and focused on the task at hand. How was this woman connected to the boy he had seen using his brother's technique?

Skimming through the first folder yielded nothing of use to him. It contained only information about her formation as a shinobi. Sasuke was quick to turn his attention to the second folder. Its cover, he saw, had been sealed. Every file inside appeared blank. He leaned back in his chair, brushing his fingers against his chin in thought. ' _ANBU?'_ he wondered. Itachi had been in the ANBU. He leaned forward again and used the seal he knew would reveal the information within the folder.

The second paper inside provided him with the first relevant piece of information. It identified Akane Nara as a member of ANBU's Team Ro, alongside Itachi and others. He noticed Kakashi listed as captain of this team. There were details about her abilities, the missions she had completed while on the team and other things that did not matter to him.

He was nearing the end of this pool of information when he came across a paper that caught his attention. Or rather, the date on it did. The day after Itachi had killed the Uchiha and fled, Nara Akane had left Konoha as well. She was then listed as a missing-nin and there were a couple of nearly illegible reports from Konoha shinobi who had seen her since. The last one was signed 'Shikamaru Nara'.

Itachi stared back at him from a photo printed alongside Shikamaru's report. He was standing beside the kunoichi whom he recognized as Akane Nara from her identification picture. The report was about Shikamaru's encounter with the two at the Nara research facility. They had incapacitated him and removed several vials of medicinal ingredients. It was dated only a couple of weeks before Itachi's death.

Sasuke took a moment to think about it. Akane had been training to become a medic-nin, her file said. Itachi had been ill for some time before his death. Putting two and two together explained why they were together, raiding the Nara research facility. She had been helping his brother last until their battle. The question was how close had they become in the meantime?

He glanced at the clock on the wall and decided it was not too late for a visit. He dropped the files on Junko's desk and left the Hokage Headquarters. Five minutes of roof-jumping later, he arrived at the address Naruto had written down for him. It turned out to be a small, two-story house, located near the Konoha Hospital.

He knocked, and a few moments later, the door opened. The woman in the pictures looked up at him with blue-grey eyes. She did not seem at all surprised to find him on her doorstep all of the sudden.

"Hello, Sasuke," she said. "Come in."

Akane stepped aside to let him pass and led him into a nicely decorated living room to the right. She removed some books from the couch and motioned for him to sit as she poured him a cup of tea.

"Raiden should be returning home soon," she said.

"He is-"

"Your brother's son."

Her straightforward manner did nothing to protect him from the shock of learning this. He had suspected, but part of him had been in denial over how such a thing could be true. It seemed Itachi had left behind so much more than just an ideal for him to follow.

"I see," he said. Even those two words barely made their way out of his mouth. "Did he know?"

"Itachi? No."

Sasuke felt a pang of guilt. _She never got to tell him._ "How old is he?"

"He will be sixteen in November."

" _Chuunin?"_

" _Jounin."_

Sasuke smiled, despite himself. The boy was quick to follow in his father's footsteps and rise through the ranks. He heard the front door open and close, then footsteps in the hall. He looked up as the boy halted in the doorway. His hair was longer and darker than Itachi's and his skin paler, but he was his father's son in every other way.

"Hello, Raiden," Sasuke said.

"Sasuke-sama," the boy said, eyeing him with interest.

"Your _shurikenjutsu_ is impressive. As good as your father's."

Raiden smirked. The gesture reminded Sasuke of himself.

Walking home that night, Sasuke thought about Itachi. There were so many things about his brother that he still did not know, after all this time. Strangely enough, the difference in age between Raiden and Sarada was of four years, the same as the one between him and Itachi. He smiled at that thought. He would have to introduce the two at some point.

Sakura was still awake when he arrived home, although it was already well past midnight. She rose from the couch to greet him and Sasuke pulled her in his arms and breathed in the sweet scent of her hair.

"You're tickling me," she said, giggling.

Sasuke realized how grateful he was to have her by his side and how much it meant to him to have a family again.


End file.
